From early youth, Mr. Lincoln had presentiments that he would die a
violent death, or, rather, that his final days would be marked by
some great tragic event. From the time of his first election to the
Presidency, his closest friends had tried to make him understand that
he was in constant danger of assassination, but, notwithstanding his
presentiments, he had such splendid courage that he only laughed at
their fears.
During the summer months he lived at the Soldiers’ Home, some miles from
Washington, and frequently made the trip between the White House and the
Home without a guard or escort. Secretary of War Stanton and Ward
Lamon, Marshal of the District, were almost constantly alarmed over
Mr. Lincoln’s carelessness in exposing himself to the danger of
assassination.
They warned him time and again, and provided suitable body-guards to
attend him. But Mr. Lincoln would often give the guards the slip, and,
mounting his favorite riding horse, “Old Abe,” would set out alone after
dark from the White House for the Soldiers’ Home.
While riding to the Home one night, he was fired upon by some one in
ambush, the bullet passing through his high hat. Mr. Lincoln would not
admit that the man who fired the shot had tried to kill him. He always
attributed it to an accident, and begged his friends to say nothing
about it.
Now that all the circumstances of the assassination are known, it is
plain that there was a deep-laid and well-conceived plot to kill Mr.
Lincoln long before the crime was actually committed. When Mr. Lincoln
was delivering his second inaugural address on the steps of the Capitol,
an excited individual tried to force his way through the guards in the
building to get on the platform with Mr. Lincoln.
It was afterward learned that this man was John Wilkes Booth, who
afterwards assassinated Mr. Lincoln in Ford’s Theatre, on the night of
the 14th of April.